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Oh, what great fun it was 107 years ago, trucking baron threw a grand sleigh party for thousands By Michael Dooling Republican-American

It was a seemingly simple idea that Ralph N. Blakeslee had 107 years ago: Organize a sleigh ride for the youngsters of Waterbury that they would never forget.

So he set out to make it happen.

However, he faced one major logistical problem. The sleigh ride he envisioned would involve nearly 5,500 children. He wanted to give a sleigh ride to every school child in the city ranging in age from about 6 to 12 years. The result of his effort became known as The World's Greatest Sleigh Party.

Blakeslee, who ran a highly successful trucking business in the city, was no stranger to sleigh rides. In years past, he had provided horse-drawn sleigh rides to various groups of Waterbury residents, including residents of the Southmayd Home on Columbia Boulevard; students from Notre Dame High School; members of the Waterbury Boys Club and Waterbury school children.

He used all his own horses and sleighs for those earlier excursions, but didn't have enough for his latest plan. So he recruited major manufacturers and businesses from Waterbury and surrounding communities to pitch in to help the ride become a success.

A total of 232 horses and 126 sleighs of all types were brought into service. The biggest sleighs were long lumber sleds brought out of the woods just for this event.

The day before the sleigh ride, Blakeslee telephoned Leonard Tarr, head of the U.S. Weather Bureau in New Haven, to check the forecast. Tarr predicted it would snow until almost noon on Saturday and it wouldn't be very cold. Sleighing will be "bully," he told Blakeslee.

AS PREDICTED, FRESH SNOW FELL and stopped before the big event. It was packed on the roads with covered ice underneath, providing a perfect surface for a sleigh ride.

On Saturday, Jan. 26, 1907, the sleighs lined up on West Main Street from the bottom of Willow Street back to the soldiers' monument on the Green. In the lead sleigh, being pulled by "two zebra-like circus ponies," were Blakeslee and his family, followed by Waterbury Mayor William E. Thoms and his family.

The electric trolleys were stopped to allow safe passage of all the children and parents who came out to watch. The Waterbury Republican newspaper described the scene as "a sea of red and green Tam O'Shanters, horses' heads and little waving hands."

At 12:45 p.m., with the blare of a coach horn, the snap of more than 100 whips and the jingling of hundreds of straps of sleigh bells, the horses began to pull their valuable cargo.

One sleigh was dedicated to a moving picture camera and crew. Bill Steiner, assisted by Jack Robinson, "reeled off a couple of miles of film while the horses pranced by." According to Blakeslee's obituary in 1911, that film footage was shown in theaters around the country.

NO SHORT RIDE AROUND THE GREEN was this sleigh ride; the distance covered was more than 10 miles and the ride lasted nearly three hours. The fleet of sleighs took a right on Willow, proceeded down Grove, Bishop, North Main and North Elm streets, worked their way to Baldwin Street south almost to the Naugatuck border, and returned to the center of town via South Main. One sleigh after another made its way to Exchange Place, up East Main to Stanley Park (approximately in front of where the City Hall Café is now located) and back to the Green.

The children were packed in the sleighs, with the fewest number in a sleigh being 32, and as many as 56 in the larger sleighs. All along the route, groups of children shouted from the sleighs, "What's the matter with Blakeslee?" Other children bellowed back, "He's all right."

It doesn't appear that Blakeslee ever broke his record of 1907, not for lack of interest but because times changed. Sleigh rides through the city streets diminished quickly as automobiles became popular and more plentiful. Unlike sleighs, which thrived on snow and ice, wheeled vehicles required streets to be plowed to maneuver around the city.

FEW RECORDS HAVE BEEN KEPT ON SLEIGH RIDES, but Medina County in Ohio lays claim to the largest four-horse-team sleigh ride. According to the History of Medina County (1881), on March 18, 1856, several Ohio counties competed for the honor of taking home a flag if they could muster the most teams. Medina County took home the flag that year with 181 teams (plus one team of mules that was disqualified). Each sleigh carried at least 14 people, resulting in a minimum of 2,548 passengers.

When contacted about known sleigh ride records, Sara Wilcox of Guinness World Records responded, "This is not a record category that we have ever monitored. We have accepted historical information before, depending on the number of reputable sources and documentation able to be verified." Perhaps Waterbury has an unclaimed world record here.

World record or not, one thing is certain; that guy Blakeslee was all right.

One biting winter morning, five years ago, Mr. Blakeslee was driving a spirited trotter when a ragged lad leaped upon the runner. The man in the fur-lined coat brandished his whip and ordered him off.

“All right mister,” said the boy; “but I don’t get a chance to ride on a sleigh very often.” Thereupon Mr. Blakeslee took the trespasser into his vehicle, wrapped him in a bearskin robe and drove him about until noon.

“Gee,” said the passenger; “wait till the gang hears of this.”

“It set me thinking,” said Mr. Blakeslee, “if that one cold kid could get so much fun out of a ride with a grumpy old man, how much would the crowd enjoy it if they could all go together and have plenty of horns to blow.”

In the following winter he fitted out a pair of trucking sleighs and announced a free ride, and he repeated it each year, with increased facilities, as the number grew larger.

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conservative1 wrote on Jan 26, 2014 8:01 AM:

" Kitty told me she was on that sleigh ride. Her. Hillary, and Obama's father (while on leave from the Army). "

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